世界経済・社会統計 = World development indicators

統計年鑑 = Statistical yearbook

Bitcoin is an online communication protocol that facilitates virtual currency including electronic payments. Since its inception in 2009 by an anonymous group of developers, Bitcoin has served tens of millions of transactions with total dollar value in the billions. Users have been drawn to Bitcoin for its decentralization, intentionally relying on no single server or set of servers to store transactions and also avoiding any single party that can ban certain participants or certain types of transactions. Bitcoin is of interest to economists in part for its potential to disrupt existing payment systems and perhaps monetary systems, and also for the wealth of data it provides about agents’ behavior and about the Bitcoin system itself. This article presents the platform’s design principles and properties for a non-technical audience, reviews its past, present and future uses, and points out risks and regulatory issues as Bitcoin interacts with the conventional financial system and the real economy.

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/Delivery.cfm/SSRN_ID2604219_code337148.pdf?abstractid=2495572&mirid=1&type=2

Bitcoin: Economics, Technology, and Governance

On the hedge and safe haven properties of Bitcoin: Is it really more than a diversifier?

This is the first article that studies BitCoin price formation by considering both the traditional determinants of currency price, e.g., market forces of supply and demand, and digital currencies specific factors, e.g., BitCoin attractiveness for investors and users. The conceptual framework is based on the Barro (1979) model, from which we derive testable hypotheses. Using daily data for five years (2009–2015) and applying time-series analytical mechanisms, we find that market forces and BitCoin attractiveness for investors and users have a significant impact on BitCoin price but with variation over time. Our estimates do not support previous findings that macro-financial developments are driving BitCoin price in the long run.

https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/142671/1/EERI_RP_2014_08.pdf

The economics of BitCoin price formation

https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/179403/1/EERI_RP_2017_02.pdf

Virtual relationships: Short- and long-run evidence from BitCoin and altcoin markets

This paper identifies and analyzes BitCoin features which may facilitate BitCoin to become a global currency, as well as characteristics which may impede the use of BitCoin as a medium of exchange, a unit of account and a store of value, and compares BitCoin with standard currencies with respect to the main functions of money. Among all analyzed BitCoin features, the extreme price volatility stands out most clearly compared to standard currencies. In order to understand the reasons for such extreme price volatility, we attempt to identify drivers of BitCoin price formation and estimate their importance econometrically. We apply time-series analytical mechanisms to daily data for the 2009---2014 period. Our estimation results suggest that BitCoin attractiveness indicators are the strongest drivers of BitCoin price followed by market forces. In contrast, macro-financial developments do not determine BitCoin price in the long-run. Our findings suggest that as long as BitCoin price will be mainly driven by speculative investments, BitCoin will not be able to compete with standard currencies.

/pdf/the-digital-agenda-of-virtual-currencies-can-bitcoin-become-5cmuc56brw.pdf

The digital agenda of virtual currencies: Can BitCoin become a global currency?

Land fragmentation and production diversification: A case study from rural Albania

This study empirically examines interdependencies between BitCoin and altcoin markets in the short- and long-run. We apply time-series analytical mechanisms to daily data of 17 virtual currencies (BitCoin + 16 alternative virtual currencies) and two Altcoin price indices for the period 2013-2016. Our empirical findings confirm that indeed BitCoin and Altcoin markets are interdependent. The BitCoin-Altcoin price relationship is significantly stronger in the short-run than in the long-run. We cannot fully confirm the hypothesis that the BitCoin price relationship is stronger with those Altcoins that are more similar in their price formation mechanism to BitCoin. In the long-run, macro-financial indicators determine the altcoin price formation to a greater degree than BitCoin does. The virtual currency supply is exogenous and therefore plays only a limited role in the price formation.

Miroslava Rajcaniova

Papers

The economics of BitCoin price formation

Virtual relationships: Short- and long-run evidence from BitCoin and altcoin markets

The digital agenda of virtual currencies: Can BitCoin become a global currency?

Land fragmentation and production diversification: A case study from rural Albania

Virtual Relationships: Short- and Long-run Evidence from BitCoin and Altcoin Markets